Utility leaders' meeting in NC raises questions

Published: Sunday, August 17, 2014 at 4:25 p.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, August 17, 2014 at 4:25 p.m.

A whirlwind trip that three top Gainesville Regional Utilities officials took to North Carolina in March to meet with Gainesville Renewable Energy Center representatives has raised questions about the reasons and costs of the one-day rendezvous.

A handful of residents brought up the Charlotte trip during a City Commission meeting earlier this month, asking about what was discussed and why the meeting was held at all.

GRU interim General Manager Kathy Viehe, Interim Chief Financial Officer David Richardson and Assistant General Manager for Energy Supply John Stanton flew to Charlotte on March 13 and flew back to Gainesville that same day after meeting with GREC officials.

Viehe told The Sun that GRU requested the meeting with GREC, which she wanted to have at a “neutral site.” While GRU and the biomass plant itself are based in Gainesville, some of the GREC officials they met with are based in Boston.

GRU wanted both organizations to have a little skin in the game — an investment in it — and didn’t want either side to feel beholden to the other, Viehe said. Charlotte and Atlanta were their two best options for a neutral site, she said, because they could get flights out of Gainesville to those destinations.

Viehe said she didn’t consider holding the meeting via a phone conference call or a Skype video call.

“Maybe I’m old-fashioned,” she said. “I like to shake somebody’s hands, look them in the eye and read their nonverbal communication throughout the meeting. Having a face-to-face meeting was absolutely what I thought was needed and warranted, and that’s why we did it.”

According to GRU records provided to The Sun, Richardson’s airfare cost $898.50, and Viehe and Stanton’s airfares each cost $920.49. All three flew coach.

Their first flight was scheduled to depart the Gainesville Regional Airport at 5:20 a.m., and their return flight was scheduled to leave Charlotte Douglas International Airport at 12:50 p.m. and arrive in Gainesville at 2:11 p.m.

Viehe said the tickets were purchased in late February.

They also considered flying out of Jacksonville, which was more expensive than Gainesville at just over $1,000 per ticket, or Orlando, which was cheaper at $566.50 each, according to GRU records.

Viehe told The Sun she wanted to make it back to Gainesville in time for the city’s Regional Utilities Committee meeting scheduled for that afternoon, and she did return in time to attend.

Suzanne Schiemann, manager of communications and human resources for the Gainesville-Alachua County Regional Airport Authority, told The Sun that March is usually one of the airport’s heavier months for travel, particularly because Gatornationals is held that month. Gatornationals was held March 13-16 this year.

She also pointed out that airlines set the ticket pricing and that those can change on a daily basis depending on factors such as how far in advance you book the flight, what day of the week and time of day you fly, and how many seats are available at different price levels.

When they arrived in Charlotte the morning of March 13, Viehe said they met with GREC officials in a conference room at the airport for around 3½ hours.

GREC President Jim Gordon was present, along with a few other GREC representatives including Communications Director John Brushwood and Chief Financial Officer Al Morales, Viehe said.

They talked about the city’s contract with GREC, she said. She and her fellow staff members wanted to express their interests and hear from GREC about theirs.

GRU’s interest was simple, she said: lowering electric costs for its customers. Viehe said they tried to express the seriousness of the utility’s situation.

One option they discussed was the possibility of doing a prepay for power, regarding which she said the GREC representatives were noncommittal.

As for what GRU got out of the meeting in Charlotte, Viehe said she thinks GREC officials now understand that her highest priority in her interim role is to try to mitigate electric rate pressure.

“I think they clearly and unequivocally understand that we have an electric rate issue. That doesn’t mean they care, but they definitely understand what our issues are,” she said.

As for the biomass plant, Brushwood of GREC told The Sun it was a typical business meeting — nothing out of the ordinary.

They discussed how they would interact going forward now that the biomass plant is operational, and GRU proposed some potential cost-cutting ideas, Brushwood said.

“I honestly personally don’t remember all the details of it,” he said. “It was a pretty standard daily business meeting.”

Meeting in Charlotte, which was basically halfway between Boston and Gainesville, allowed all of the officials involved to meet and then get back to their other work obligations that same day, he said.

Mayor Ed Braddy told The Sun that Viehe mentioned the Charlotte meeting to him right before it happened and that it didn’t raise any red flags with him. The goal of the meeting as described to him was to inform GREC officials of a change in leadership at GRU and that there would be new terms of discussion.

“Let’s just say the way things were done under the old regime were not going to be done any longer,” Braddy said.

Braddy said he didn’t think meeting in Charlotte was unreasonable because GRU was meeting GREC halfway instead of flying up north to meet on GREC’s turf as he knew GRU executive management had done in the past.

“This was sort of putting an end to that, and I thought it was a step in the right direction,” he said.

Braddy said he thinks the meeting helped set a new tone for GRU-GREC relations, which he thinks is something that can help rebuild the public trust in GRU.

“They’re in a much more buttoned-down, business relationship now with GRU and the city of Gainesville than they once were,” he said of GREC.

Perhaps in hindsight, the GRU officials should have demanded the GREC representatives fly to Gainesville to talk given the criticism this generated, he said. He isn’t ruling out that there could have been a better alternative but said he appreciated that Viehe insisted on “breaking the old way of doing things.”

Braddy said he hopes people will recognize this has been an effort to change the relationship between GRU and GREC into one that’s more business-minded and matter-of-fact moving forward.

<p>A whirlwind trip that three top Gainesville Regional Utilities officials took to North Carolina in March to meet with Gainesville Renewable Energy Center representatives has raised questions about the reasons and costs of the one-day rendezvous.</p><p>A handful of residents brought up the Charlotte trip during a City Commission meeting earlier this month, asking about what was discussed and why the meeting was held at all.</p><p>GRU interim General Manager Kathy Viehe, Interim Chief Financial Officer David Richardson and Assistant General Manager for Energy Supply John Stanton flew to Charlotte on March 13 and flew back to Gainesville that same day after meeting with GREC officials. </p><p>Viehe told The Sun that GRU requested the meeting with GREC, which she wanted to have at a “neutral site.” While GRU and the biomass plant itself are based in Gainesville, some of the GREC officials they met with are based in Boston.</p><p>GRU wanted both organizations to have a little skin in the game — an investment in it — and didn't want either side to feel beholden to the other, Viehe said. Charlotte and Atlanta were their two best options for a neutral site, she said, because they could get flights out of Gainesville to those destinations.</p><p>Viehe said she didn't consider holding the meeting via a phone conference call or a Skype video call.</p><p>“Maybe I'm old-fashioned,” she said. “I like to shake somebody's hands, look them in the eye and read their nonverbal communication throughout the meeting. Having a face-to-face meeting was absolutely what I thought was needed and warranted, and that's why we did it.”</p><p>According to GRU records provided to The Sun, Richardson's airfare cost $898.50, and Viehe and Stanton's airfares each cost $920.49. All three flew coach.</p><p>Their first flight was scheduled to depart the Gainesville Regional Airport at 5:20 a.m., and their return flight was scheduled to leave Charlotte Douglas International Airport at 12:50 p.m. and arrive in Gainesville at 2:11 p.m.</p><p>Viehe said the tickets were purchased in late February.</p><p>They also considered flying out of Jacksonville, which was more expensive than Gainesville at just over $1,000 per ticket, or Orlando, which was cheaper at $566.50 each, according to GRU records.</p><p>Viehe told The Sun she wanted to make it back to Gainesville in time for the city's Regional Utilities Committee meeting scheduled for that afternoon, and she did return in time to attend.</p><p>Suzanne Schiemann, manager of communications and human resources for the Gainesville-Alachua County Regional Airport Authority, told The Sun that March is usually one of the airport's heavier months for travel, particularly because Gatornationals is held that month. Gatornationals was held March 13-16 this year.</p><p>She also pointed out that airlines set the ticket pricing and that those can change on a daily basis depending on factors such as how far in advance you book the flight, what day of the week and time of day you fly, and how many seats are available at different price levels.</p><p>When they arrived in Charlotte the morning of March 13, Viehe said they met with GREC officials in a conference room at the airport for around 3½ hours.</p><p>GREC President Jim Gordon was present, along with a few other GREC representatives including Communications Director John Brushwood and Chief Financial Officer Al Morales, Viehe said.</p><p>They talked about the city's contract with GREC, she said. She and her fellow staff members wanted to express their interests and hear from GREC about theirs.</p><p>GRU's interest was simple, she said: lowering electric costs for its customers. Viehe said they tried to express the seriousness of the utility's situation.</p><p>One option they discussed was the possibility of doing a prepay for power, regarding which she said the GREC representatives were noncommittal.</p><p>As for what GRU got out of the meeting in Charlotte, Viehe said she thinks GREC officials now understand that her highest priority in her interim role is to try to mitigate electric rate pressure.</p><p>“I think they clearly and unequivocally understand that we have an electric rate issue. That doesn't mean they care, but they definitely understand what our issues are,” she said.</p><p>As for the biomass plant, Brushwood of GREC told The Sun it was a typical business meeting — nothing out of the ordinary.</p><p>They discussed how they would interact going forward now that the biomass plant is operational, and GRU proposed some potential cost-cutting ideas, Brushwood said.</p><p>“I honestly personally don't remember all the details of it,” he said. “It was a pretty standard daily business meeting.”</p><p>Meeting in Charlotte, which was basically halfway between Boston and Gainesville, allowed all of the officials involved to meet and then get back to their other work obligations that same day, he said.</p><p>Mayor Ed Braddy told The Sun that Viehe mentioned the Charlotte meeting to him right before it happened and that it didn't raise any red flags with him. The goal of the meeting as described to him was to inform GREC officials of a change in leadership at GRU and that there would be new terms of discussion.</p><p>“Let's just say the way things were done under the old regime were not going to be done any longer,” Braddy said.</p><p>Braddy said he didn't think meeting in Charlotte was unreasonable because GRU was meeting GREC halfway instead of flying up north to meet on GREC's turf as he knew GRU executive management had done in the past.</p><p>“This was sort of putting an end to that, and I thought it was a step in the right direction,” he said.</p><p>Braddy said he thinks the meeting helped set a new tone for GRU-GREC relations, which he thinks is something that can help rebuild the public trust in GRU.</p><p>“They're in a much more buttoned-down, business relationship now with GRU and the city of Gainesville than they once were,” he said of GREC.</p><p>Perhaps in hindsight, the GRU officials should have demanded the GREC representatives fly to Gainesville to talk given the criticism this generated, he said. He isn't ruling out that there could have been a better alternative but said he appreciated that Viehe insisted on “breaking the old way of doing things.”</p><p>Braddy said he hopes people will recognize this has been an effort to change the relationship between GRU and GREC into one that's more business-minded and matter-of-fact moving forward.</p><p><i>Contact Morgan Watkins at 338-3104 or morgan.watkins@gainesville.com.</i></p>